The Oxford Handbook of International Business Strategy

The growth of the multinational enterprise (MNE) has led to an increasing interest in international business strategy from scholars, professionals, and policy makers alike. MNEs must contend with challenges in both their home and host international markets, and increasingly uncertain conditions in the international business environment demand superior firm-level capabilities for multinational firms to achieve and maintain competitive advantages in the long-run. This Handbook explores the progress made in international business strategy theory and practice in the last few decades. Written by an international team of leading experts, it captures the differences in motivations and decision-making processes between smaller and larger firms, private, family, and state owned firms, and emerging or developed market multinationals. It elaborates on the links between international strategy and the social responsibilities of the firm in its various host market contexts, including the deployment of effective and ethical human resource practices in international markets. Most importantly, it lays out how the classic principles of international competitive strategy are transformed in today’s markets, in great part due to digitalization, and provides suggestions on how MNEs can develop international business strategies to respond to these transformations. The implications of these discussions for strategy and practice are becoming ever more profound. This Handbook will prove a valuable resource for both international business scholars and practitioners.